Descending The Ladder To Poverty

If a governing system is a ladder, there are rungs that, if strong, lead to prosperity and, if attacked, to collapse. Democrats are attacking America’s rungs.

Allan J. Feifer | July 9, 2026

For most of our history, Republicans and Democrats disagreed over how best to strengthen the nation’s prosperity and not about whether the institutions that created that prosperity were worth preserving. We debated taxes, spending, regulation, and the proper scope of government, but those debates took place within a shared constitutional framework.

Increasingly, that consensus is giving way to a more fundamental question: Are the institutions that made America prosperous still worthy of our confidence, or should they be replaced by a system that allows government to accelerate the redistribution of wealth in the name of social equity?

History suggests that prosperity rests on several indispensable foundations, or rungs, as I call them.

The first is the rule of law. Economic growth depends on predictable rules that apply equally to all. Investors commit capital, businesses hire workers, and entrepreneurs take risks because they believe contracts will be enforced and the government will act according to established law rather than political favoritism.

When laws become arbitrary or selectively enforced, confidence declines, investment slows, and economic activity becomes cautious. When people lose confidence that their productive worth can be secured, they begin to protect themselves rather than produce, weakening the broad-based nature of capitalism that thrives on economic freedom.

The second is secure property rights. Ownership gives people confidence that the fruits of their labor, savings, and investment will remain their own. That confidence encourages long-term planning, innovation, and wealth creation.

When governments weaken those protections, the effects extend well beyond individual property owners. Zimbabwe’s seizure of commercial farmland in the early 2000s dramatically reduced agricultural production, drove away investment, and contributed to years of economic decline that continue........

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